Hind sight is always 20/20.

This morning I took the kids to a local museum that had an awesome kids section with various interactive rooms. Ashlynn's favorite was, ofcourse, the theatre room. She spent time choosing her costume, deciding on her performance and what it would entail. As I kept an eye on the others, she said would let me know when she was ready so I could watch. The time came and as she tried to open the velvet curtains a little girl came up and began yanking them closed. Ashlynn, in a very sweet voice said, "no, no, leave them open". To which the girl completely ignored and kept pulling them closed. Ashlynn kept trying to open them and was getting nowhere. Now mind you, I was holding Addie and trying to keep an eye on the boys while watching Ashlynn so I wasn't realizing the trouble she was having. All of a sudden this girl's mom very rudely tells Ashlynn that her daughter can touch anything she wants and she has every right to play with the curtains if she wants and Ashlynn had no right to tell her not to close them or let them go!

I was speechless. Poor Ashlynn just looked at me in utter terror and all I could do was muster, "It's ok, Ashlynn, you're ok Ashlynn". She ran off the stage to the dressing area, took off her costume, quietly walked out of the area and began sobbing. She was so embarrassed and had no idea what she had done wrong for this women to talk to her the way she did.

Seriously, I was so shocked at the way the woman reacted I had no idea what to do. My friend that was with me (who also has four children) could see the distress Ashlynn was in and just tried to comfort her by finding something else for her to play with. The rude lady vanished by the time I went back to the theatre, which upset me even more. There I stood, my daughter looking me in the eyes for some reassurance and all I could get out was "it's ok"???

Now that I have been stewing on it all afternoon, I could think of a million things to tell this person who completely crossed the line with my child (or any other child for that matter). Did it make you feel good to humiliate a six year old girl in front of others? Do you realize in the least that your daughter was ruining their show they had been working on? Do you know how rude you sounded?

Why can't I think of these things at the moment? I am so non-confrontational it drives me crazy sometimes. All I can do is take the lesson from this and never again not stand up for my child in the face of total rudeness. Trust me, I am not one of those parents that thinks their child is perfect and can do no wrong. If anything, I err on the side of asking them if they did anything to instigate the conflict first. This crossed the line and it has just been eating me up today, so here I am getting it off my chest.

What would you have done?